ARE YOU IN?

CV

Sigmar Gabriel

Sigmar Gabriel

Sigmar Gabriel was born on 12 September 1959 in Gostar, Germany. He studied German, Politics and Sociology at the University of Göttingen and later become a teacher. He joined the SPD in 1977 and in the following years became a member of the Transport and Public Service Workers’ Union (ÖTV), the Engineering Workers’ Union (IG Metall) and the Workers' Welfare Association (Arbeiterwohlfahrt). From 1983-87 he was a lecturer in adult political education at the association Work and Life (Arbeit und Leben) and for the trade unions ÖTV and IG Metall. In 1990 Sigmar Gabriel was directly elected a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament and in 1994 he became domestic policy spokesman of the SPD group in the state parliament. He was elected chair of the SPD group in the state Parliament in 1998 and the next year he became member of the SPD Executive Committee. Between 1999-2003 he was Minister-President of Lower Saxony and from 2003-2005 he acted again as chair of the SPD group in the state parliament. During the 2005 elections he was directly elected Member of the German Bundestag and after the elections he assumed office as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. He worked as a Federal Minister until November 2009 and on the 13th November he was elected SPD Chairman during the SPD Congress in Dresden.